It is with deep regret to announce that on April 25, DANIEL C. FABITO M.D. FACS, FPCS, FICS, past President and Executive Director of SPSA passed on at Southern Hills Hospital in Las Vegas, NV, in the company of his beloved family after a brief illness.
Danny Fabito was born in Sta. Barbara, Pangasinan, during the height of the Japanese occupation of the Philippines during WWII. He graduated Valedictorian in Elementary School and with High Honors from the Daniel Maramba National High School in 1957. He obtained his Associate in Arts degree and continued on to his Doctor of Medicine Degree from Far Eastern University Institute of Medicine in 1964. He pursued his Surgical Residency at the Evangelical Deaconess Hospital in Milwaukee, Wisconsin from 1965 to 1967 continuing on with the University of Missouri-Baptist Medical Center from 1967 to 1971 followed by two years of Fellowship in Vascular Surgery. He is a Diplomate of the American Board of Surgery and the Philippine Board of Surgery, and a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, the Philippine College of Surgeons, the International College of Surgeons and the Society of Philippine Surgeons in America.
He started his surgical practice in St. Louis, Missouri in General, Vascular, Trauma and Bariatric surgery in 1973 and served as Surgical Consultant in four major Hospitals as well as Clinical Associate Professor in Surgery at St. Louis University School of Medicine.
A surgical Innovator, he had worked with his former Chief of Surgery in developing the “Oscillating Loop Thromboendarterectomy Instrument” for Femoral-popliteal and popliteal-tibial revascularization for limb salvage. He also had collaborated on the Ileo-Anal Pouch procedure as well as specialized training with the “Barnett Continent Pouch Ileostomy” for Inflammatory bowel disease.
In 1976, he developed the “Fabito Vertical Silastic Gastroplasty Procedure” adopted by other Surgeons, and operated on more than 2000 patients until he started doing Laparoscopic Gastric Bypass and Gastroplasty for morbid obesity in 1999. In 1986, he organized a Team of Consultants and taught 12 Fellows of the Philippine College of Surgeons with the new Laparoscopic procedures at the Southwestern University in Cebu City with one week of didactic lectures and hands-on actual operations on Porcine models.
Daniel C. Fabito is an epitome of a student and medical leader having served as President of the Philippine Medical Association of Greater St. Louis, 7 th President of the Association of Philippine Physicians in America (APPA) in 1980-81 and as President of the Society of Philippine Surgeons in America (SPSA) in 1989-1990. He also has served as Chairman of the Department of Surgery for multiple terms at Lutheran Medical Center and Alexian Brothers Hospital, major hospitals in Metropolitan St. Louis. He has lectured on different surgical topics in general, vascular and bariatric surgery in local, national, and international conferences. He has been a Memorial Lecturer on four occasions during his Medical School Alumni Reunions and Scientific Conventions. He served as President, Chairman of the Board, and Chairman Emeritus of his Medical School Alumni Foundation in America.
He was active in multiple Phil-Am Associations in Las Vegas Nevada Notably PAAN (Phil-American Association of Nevada) PACF (Phil-American Charity Foundation) and NaFFAA (National Federation of Filipino American Associations) in Presidential and leadership capacities with active involvement in the health and wealth programs for the benefit of Phil-Am communities in Las Vegas. His compassionate concern for the indigent and marginalized fellow kababayan is evidenced by his annual medical-surgical missions, joined by his wife, Dr. Melinda Fabito, an Internist, together with his regular team of doctors, nurses, and paramedical personnel for the last 40 years since 1981, serving thousands of patients in different parts of the Philippines, interrupted only by the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Danny Fabito is survived by his loving wife Dr. Melinda his children Dr. Daniel Everett, Daniel Marc, JD and Melissa RN.